These Firefighters Rescued Some Piglets, Then Ate Them For Dinner—And People Are Furious

A farmer who thanked firefighters for rescuing her litter of piglets has defended her decision to serve them up as sausages.

The 18 piglets and two sows survived a fire thanks to the intervention of firefighters from Pewsey in Wiltshire in February, when 60 tonnes of hay caught fire, the BBC reports.

After the blaze, farm manager Rachel Rivers promised she would give the firefighters sausages when the animals were slaughtered for their meat. Six months later, she did just that and the sausages were delivered to the fire service, who barbecued them.

Both the farmer and the firefighters have faced criticism from vegetarians and animal rights campaigners for the controversial gift, with some social media users describing the gesture as "disturbing".

But Rivers has protected the agreement she had in place with the fire service by saying the farm is "not an animal sanctuary".

"I gave those animals the best quality of life I could ever give until the time they go to slaughter and they go into the food chain," she told the BBC.

"You do feel sad at the end of it... but to bring them down for [the firefighters] was a good way of saying 'thank you'."

The farm's owner, Canon Gerald Osbourne, added: "An inevitable part of farming is the death of an animal which gives us the food to eat."

Still, Pewsey fire station was delighted with their gift and thanked Rivers for her "highly recommended" produce with a picture of the barbecued sausages on Facebook, which has since been removed.

"In regard to a recent post on this page. We recognise that this has caused offense to some – we apologize for this and as such have removed the post," the fire station wrote.

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The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) responded by saying it would send the firefighters packs of vegan sausages.

"When the emergency services rescue animals, PETA thanks them with vegan chocolates, not the animals' barbecued flesh," PETA's Director of International Programmes, Mimi Bekhechi, told Country Living. "We'll be sending Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service packs of Linda McCartney vegan sausages so that they can see how easy it is to truly be heroes for pigs – by sparing them all suffering."

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